PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

The Moral Sense. 31
have been set up by the authority of an arbitrary chieftain,
or the unaccountable caprice of the multitude
-aU1},hich, thty observe, looks very little like the
steady h~nd and indelible characters of natftre. But,
Secondly, because, after these exceptions and abatements,
it cannot be denied, but that some sorts of
actions command. and receive the esteem" of mankind
more than others; and that the approbation of dIem
is general, though not universal: as to this they say,
that the genera. approbation of virtue, even in instan.
ces where \ve have no interest of our own to induce us
to it, may be· accounted for, without the assistance of .
a moral sense: thllS,
" Having experienced, in some instance, a particular
COllduct to be beneficial to ourseives, or observed
that it would; be so, a sentiment of approbation rises
up in our minds, which sentiment afterwards accompanies
the idea or mention of the same conduct,
although the private advantage which first excited it
!to longer exist."
-_
And this continuance of the passion, after" the
reason of it has ceased, is nothing more, say they, than
what happens in other cases; especially in the love
of money, which is in no person so eager, as it is
oftentimes found to be in a rich old miser, without
family to provide for, or friend to oblige by it, and
to whom consequently it is no longer, (and he may
be sensible of it too) of any real use or value: yet
is this man as much overjoyed with gain, and mortified
by losses, as he was the first day he opened his shop,
and when his very subsistence depended upon his suc"
• •
cess In It.
By these means, the custom of approving certain
act4~ls "C011l11zcnct'd; and when once such a custom
hath got footing in the world, it is no difficult
thing to explain how it is transmitted and continue?;
for then the greatest part of those who approve of
VIrtue, approve of it from authority, by inutation,
R '